Chagossians
reclaim our land:
people evicted by the UK,
land leased to the US military

Chagos is an
Archipelago in the Indian Ocean administered by the British government.
Between 1965 and 1973, the UK and US, with the complicity of Mauritius,
evicted 5000 Chagossian people from Chagos islands (including Diego
Garcia) to make way for the biggest US nuclear/military base outside the
US.

The British government
leases the Chagos Archipelago to the US for at least $2 billions a
year and other concessions - e.g. £5 million owed to the US for the
Polaris nuclear missile was waived. The US military is increasing the
pressure to stop us from returning and reclaiming our home.

We have been organising
for the right to return to our native land and for financial
compensation for what we have suffered: for the crime of forced
deportation, the theft and destruction of our livelihood and property,
and the attempt to wipe out our identity and our culture.

To
justify our deportation, the UK government lied to the United Nations,
claiming that Chagossians were temporary workers from the Seychelles and
Mauritius. It took 30 years to get the UN to recognise that we are
Native people, living on these islands since 1776 - when the French
brought our ancestors there as slaves.

A strategic military base

Diego
Garcia, the biggest inhabited island, was key as a refuelling base
during the 1991 Gulf War and the current war against Iraq. It served as
a base for B-52 bombers. The US also used Diego Garcia to launch bomb
attacks against Afghanistan.Currently,
a number of al-Qaeda suspects are being held and interrogated on the
island. The base is also critical because it serves the other US bases
in Africa, Middle-East and South-East Asia. The US has plans to expand
their base

The British government
never consulted the Chagossian people, only with the US and Mauritian
governments. There has never been a referendum, nor were people even
warned about the deportations. Some Chagossians had gone to Mauritius
for health care, but were never allowed to go back to the islands. All
ships were stopped, the UK authorities burned people’s birth
certificates and killed all our domestic animals in front of us.

In Mauritius, we have
faced terrible racism, extreme poverty and hardship. When we arrived we
were met by police who confiscated all our belongings. They searched for
papers, including doing body searches of women.While the white elite from Chagos received money to resettle in
Australia, Black Chagossians were deported like animals in a cargo hold,
reminiscent of how slaves have been treated for centuries.

Clemencia,
a grandmother born in Diego Garcia said, “I used to work harvesting
coconuts, picking four coconuts per tree, I would carry 25 coconuts per
bag on my head. I had to harvest 700 coconuts per day. I did that from
age 10. My wage was 10 rupees per month (20p). I looked after the family
garden and a few animals for subsistence.I went to Mauritius in 1967 to get health care for my son, then I
was not allowed to come back. Mauritius
people are very racist against Chagossians.” Living in poverty as a
domestic worker, Clemencia left Mauritius on 1 June 2003 to join one of
her sons who was already in the UK.

In 1983, 10 years after
the deportations, the UK gave the Mauritian government £4m cash, and
Mauritius “contributed” £1m as the value of the land to
“compensate” the deported Chagossians. But only certain Chagossians
got £1000 each as “final and full compensation” and were forced to
abandon any claims. Many could not read what they signed, many signed
with their thumb print. Those deported to the Seychelles got no
compensation.

We have opposed these
deportations for the last 30 years. In Mauritius, we held
demonstrations, mass sit-ins in front of the UK Embassy, and hunger
strikes by Chagossian women to demand the withdrawal of the US base and
the right to return to Chagos, including Diego Garcia. Women have been
at the forefront of our struggle, which won an important court decision.

On 3 November 2000,
the High Court in London granted Chagossians the right to return to all
the Chagos islands. The Court acknowledged that we had been unlawfully
removed from the island. The UK government granted us full British
citizenship. . . 30 years after the deportations!

However, on 9
October 2003, the High Court ruled the Chagossians had no right to
compensation, and questioned the ruling which granted the right to
return. This judgment violates many international conventions which
recognise our right to enter our own country, the obligation on the UK
to ensure the “well-being of the inhabitants” of the territories it
administers, and other international legal rights.

Over the last year, a
community of over 100 Chagossians has come to the UK to reclaim our
rights. We have been faced with the same racism and discrimination we
faced in Mauritius. Even
though we are British citizens, we are denied proper accommodation and
benefits. Many have be made homeless or will soon been made homeless.

The
Chagossian Group UK has joined the peace camp at Parliament Square
because we have no place to go and we want to make our struggle and
demands public. Legal Action for Women and Payday (a men’s network),
both based at Crossroads Women’s Centre, have been helping us with our
demands for housing, welfare and other reparations.

We
demand that:

1
The US military base withdraws from Diego Garcia;

2
The British Government
immediately arranges for our re-settlement in the Chagos Archipelago
(notwithstanding the 9 October 2003 Court ruling)

3
All generations of
ChagossiansgetUK passports (up to now only deported
Chagossians of the 1st and 2nd generations have a
passport);

4
All Chagossians who want to settle in the UK get permanent housing

5
£5000 every month for each Chagossian for as long as the British
Government leases Chagos, including Diego Garcia island to the American
army.